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Zachary M. Turk, PhD
Department of Economics, Cork University Business School, University College Cork, Ireland
Focusing on the economics of growth & inequality with implications for environmental policy
Focusing on the economics of growth & inequality with implications for environmental policy
Welcome to my website,
I appreciate the opportunity to introduce myself to you! I am currently seeking a long-term position from spring/Summer 2025 onwards where I can focus on my main research interests in the economics of inequality.
I hold a PhD in Environmental Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), two master’s degrees – one in Environmental Science from Yale University and another in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California at Davis (UC Davis), and a bachelor’s degree in Business Economics. I also have certificates in Data Science, Big Data Analysis, and Python Programming and several years of professional experience.
Presently I work as a senior postdoctoral researcher at University College Cork, Ireland, on a term-limited project developing indicators on the impact of land use policy on production, environmental and socioeconomic outcomes. In 2023-2024 I worked as an economist for a New Zealand-based research institute designing empirical studies. I was also employed in 2021-2022 as a postdoctoral researcher on a large project related to biodiversity in Germany. I have undertaken consulting and short-term projects in recent years related to environmental and public policy. A detailed list of my employment background as well as publications can be viewed on my Job Market Page.
Research interests: My research interests are focussed on the intersection of economic growth, inequality, and environmentally relevant public policy. I have started down this research path with my job market paper, "The Geometry of Growth and Inequality" and working paper "Beyond Mean-Spirited Growth" (with Ben Groom and Eli Fenichel). In the first, I present a new approach to distributional growth decomposition, use it to relate GDP/capita growth to Atkinson's equally distributed equivalent (EDE) growth with minimal information, and finally re-estimate the "wealth effect" component of SRTP-based social discount rates for several countries. In the latter, present a more comprehensive model of the relationship between inequality and economic growth, explore relevant complement metrics to GDP/capita to incorporate inequality, and further relate inequality trends to the value of natural capital.
Teaching interest: I would like to teach graduate and undergraduate environmental economics and have a special interest in developing courses on the economics of inequality, and causal inference approaches to econometrics. I would also be comfortable supporting the core undergraduate economics curriculum.
Funding interest: I also expect to pursue substantial levels of research funding related to the economics of inequality in coming years (e.g., EU Horizon or ERC Starting Grant). One interest is in establishing a multinational survey on the use of public and natural resources across the income distribution and geospatially. The purpose will be to more fully capture household incomes in the spirit of Genuine Progress Indicators and learn how households supplement or substitute private incomes with public and environmental resources. I am also happy to advise other researchers in support of their interests. Some other areas that I would be particularly interested in advising on are the use of causal inference, non-market valuation and survey methods related to public and environmental policy, integrated assessment modelling, public sector net-zero emissions monitoring, and social discounting.
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